


Here, At The End Of All Things

by ayoungloversrage (soundfanatic)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Study, Future Fic, Gen, Implied Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-09
Updated: 2013-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-18 06:37:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/876738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soundfanatic/pseuds/ayoungloversrage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott finally gives in to the instinct and allows the wolf to surface, becoming an unstoppable force. / Derek used to think he was an immovable object. Now he knows better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here, At The End Of All Things

**Scott** blinks against the sweat falling into his eyes. Despite his supernatural stamina, he's exhausted. His body protests and his muscles burn as he tries to position himself between his pack and certain death. He's not sure how much longer he can hold out against Deucalion and Gerard Argent-- or at least the thing Gerard has become. They're all circling each other and panting like animals, gasping for air as if the oxygen is being sucked out of the hollow warehouse they've found themselves in.

The gaping wound in Scott's side has only started to heal, but the gashes along his right bicep are fresh enough that blood is still persistently flowing down his arm. Veins of red curl over his forearm and twist around his hand until gravity pulls heavy drops off his fingertips to the concrete below. The thick _drip, drip_ joins a chorus of distinct sounds; the tension and drag of a bowstring as Allison notches another arrow from her perch, the shuffle of denim and leather against the floor as Boyd pulls a nearly unconscious Isaac farther away from the action, the push of air around a wolfsbane-laced baseball bat as Stiles swings it on either side of his body in an arcing figure-eight, and the soft murmuring coming from within a circle of mountain ash as Lydia calls upon the spirits of those who were sacrificed in the name of power.

The moment seems to drag on until Gerard becomes impatient and lurches forward with a strangled cry, but is almost instantly pinned in place as the earth and air around them begin to tremble. The warehouse's foundation groans, metal and brick tested to their limits. Scott knows what comes next and rolls out of the way as Lydia screams, "Allison, _now_."

Less than a second later, Allison's final arrow finds its target between Gerard Argent's eyes. As his body hits the ground in a sickening thump, a wave of pure energy is released that knocks everyone to their knees. The warehouse gives a final shudder and everything falls still.

Scott has barely enough time to feel infinitely proud of his pack before Deucalion recovers and shifts into a beast more monstrous and grotesque than even Peter Hale had been. Scott recalls something Derek had once said during the Kanima fiasco about shapeshifters' forms reflecting the kind of people they are. He thinks it's fitting that Deucalion would be twisted and almost unrecognizable as a living thing.

Struggling to a stand, Scott finds his resolve once more. He stares down the darkest side of his nature unwaveringly, and holds on to the responsibility of protecting his friends and family. He finds a strength in the recent lack of a distinction between the two. Scott finally gives in to the instinct and allows the wolf to surface, becoming an unstoppable force.

 

 **Derek** receives the address to an abandoned warehouse via text. He knows what will happen there that night, knows that either way lives will be lost. No matter the outcome, he no longer has a place in Beacon Hills. His place was with his family, his blood. It always had been. But then again, look where his loyalty got him. Fleeing his home with two people who might as well be strangers.

By the time Derek makes the decision to leave Peter and Cora and head back to Beacon Hills, the battle has already begun. When he finally arrives, it's almost too late.

He didn't know what he expected, but it wasn't Stiles propped against a pillar just inside the door with a gash running along the length of his face, sneering "About time you showed up." It wasn't Lydia bandaging Allison's broken leg, or Boyd and Isaac barely helping to keep Deucalion from ripping Scott apart. He definitely didn't expect his arrival to distract the betas, causing them to be flung violently across the floor.

Assessing the situation, he sees what the final outcome would have been, clear as day: Scott and Deucalion would have burned each other out. They were evenly matched. Scott, supported by the power of pack; and Deucalion, supported by the power he took with the lives of others. Derek sees a few options at his disposal. The first, and least likely, is ending this for everyone by killing Scott and the rest of his pack and joining forces with Deucalion. The second is simply killing Deucalion while he's still weak, and taking all of that power for himself. Nothing would stop him, nothing could hold him back. After all, he has nothing left to lose.

But looking around at the faces of those who stayed to fight reveals the only true option he has.

Derek used to think he was an immovable object, like a great boulder, all bulk and unyielding mass. He used to believe his survival meant resilience and strength. Now he knows better. Now he understands. He's always been sand, easily manipulated, easily built up and torn down and washed away with the churning tide.

He sees how thin he's spread over all the places he's been, grains of himself left behind to linger in the pockets of shadows and in the tight corners of houses where walls meet. He watches as his thoughts, emotions, memories, lessons learned, and spilled blood are swept under a rug. Covered up only to be trampled into dust later. Derek thinks it's fitting how history repeats. Bodies to ash, rocks to dust. At least some things never change; it's nice to know what to expect, when there are no surprises.

And it's not really a surprise that he ended up here alone with only his mistakes. It's not surprising at all how Scott has all but taken his rightful place as the Alpha of Beacon Hills. Scott who is surrounded by those he has earned the loyalty of. Scott who has been tried and tested and found worthy of a place Derek had no hope of holding for himself. What Gerard Argent had said all those months ago still rang true, Derek was the only piece of this puzzle that didn't fit-- had never fit.

So when Derek takes his final steps toward Deucalion, toward certain death, he feels peace. His resignation, his last act of defiance, is the one thing he can get right. This, he knows, was his purpose all along. Because here, at the end of all things, he sees a vast ocean and lets himself be pulled under.

**Author's Note:**

> Like the Highlander, there can only be one true Alpha. Sometimes this is how I imagine things might resolve.
> 
> Edit: I had to rewrite part of Derek's section because it felt out of character when I went back to reread it.


End file.
